him to have this as a single family property, considering that there's a property on the block
that hasn't even sold in five months. At this time, I would ask if my client would be allowed
to come on and adopt my testimony. Yes, absolutely. Mr. Watson. Mr. Watson, could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer? I don't have to speak. Can you hear me? Yes. Could
you state your name and spell for the court stenographer? Bryant Watson, B-R-Y-A-N-T,
Watson, W-A-T-S-O-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? Yes. Proceed, counsel. Thank you. Mr. Watson, are you the owner of 1821 North
Metrona Street? Yes. And do you own another property on that block? Yes. And do you agree
with and adopt the presentation and testimony I gave here today? Yes, I do. Do you have any other
comments you would like to make to the board oh i don't thank you questions from the board
no chair
no mr chair thank you questions or comments in the virtual audience mr chair i have whitney
blake with their hand raised i have allowed them to speak hi could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer. Good morning. Can you hear me? I can. Okay. Good morning. My
name is Whitney Blake, spelled W-H-I-T-N-E-Y. Last name is B-L-A-K-E. What else do you need? Do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Are you a
neighbor? Yes, sir. Proceed. I live directly across the street from 1821 North Latrona Street.
I have been present to all previous meetings with the Strawberry Mansion Board, along with Lynn Nichols and Brian Watson.
In the first meeting, they did not provide the correct dimensions of the building they were going to build.
And in the second spirited meeting that she mentioned, there was a lot of callousness regarding our concerns about the congestion in our neighborhood, particularly from Ms. Nichols.
um in the uh document they stated that there will be no impact on the congestion in and around the
neighborhood that is entirely untrue um our neighborhood is already congested as is people
are parking on the sides of the street as we do not have access we do not have the room adding
additional families would cause a lot of congestion and i am just appalled at the callousness as to
how they're going about this. As many people on my block have expressed our concern on the
construction, its impact on the already limited parking that we have, as well as just the overall
negligence of the feelings of the people who have lived here. I have grown up on this block. I am in
my 30s. I grew up on my block. And just noticing just how all of this has transpired, even now,
it seems as though our concerns are not being addressed. We have asked several times about the
parking situation and how that is going to be addressed and the congestion, and we did not
receive an adequate response. So I am hoping that you guys reject their request and that they come
to our block with an adequate revision. Thank you. Chair, can I ask what her address is, please?
1818 North Nachona Street. I'm directly across the street. Chair, do you want me to respond now or
wait why don't we uh why don't we see who else is in the audience okay okay
Why don't we, why don't we see who else is in the audience. Okay. Okay. Other people in the
virtual audience? Yes, Tyrone Williams. I've allowed them to speak. Good morning, Mr. Williams.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer? Oh, good morning, Mr. Chair.
My name is Reverend Tyrone Williams, first name T-Y-R-O-N-E, last name Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, sir.
And, Reverend, are you a neighbor?
I am the program manager for the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation, which was the RCO day of the meetings.
All right, proceed.
As well as the chair of the meetings. So as it was forestated, the first meeting, they did not have the proper dimensions or wasn't prepared to present. So they did not. On June 22nd, they did present. Yes, that was a very spirited meeting.
Many of the residents at that time expressed their concern of congestion, their concern of just changing the block from a family-filled block, single families, to having a change.
It was a fair factor going on with the residents about what can happen in that block.
It's a lot that has been going on around that block,
surrounding that block.
So they are observing development happening around them.
And they gave a vote resounding overwhelmingly no,
because they say that this is the only way that they think they can speak up.
Other than that, they don't feel as though they have been being heard.
um with that the struggling action cdc has to uh offer non-support we saw really we did get the
letter in i got it to mr lee i hope he got it to you miss nipples uh i know it wasn't timely but we
did give a letter of opposition to this project and like i said the residents uh supports we
support the residents and so that's our position all right thank you reverend for your taking the
time to call. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Calvin Williams. I've allowed them
to speak, sir. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello? Mr. Williams, please unmute yourself. Yes, can you hear me at all? Yes, we hear you. Could
you state your name please and spell for the courts yes calvin williams c-a-l-v-i-n-w-i-l-l-i-a-m-s
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do are you a neighbor sir yes i am a neighbor an 1800 block of natrona street
i am along hello okay i along with my neighbors thank you for the opportunity
I, along with my neighbors, are part of three and four generations of single family home ownership on the block.
Our block is no longer than a football field with the church at one end of the block and the other end of the block from Burke Street is an apartment houses.
I think we have maybe 20 houses, maybe on the entire block.
And there's all single families.
The comps that the attorney presented, neither of those houses and none of those houses have variances for multiple family units.
Two of the properties are lots.
Mrs. Blake owns one of the lots, and she has never given any authority or saying that it was three units allowed on there.
We are not in the position right now.
We're small. We're family oriented. We do everything together.
And I've spoken to the board before that we're trying desperately to keep the continuity of our neighborhood with single family homeowners with four and five generations.
And that is my block. I just hope that the board will vote into in our favor.
We reject this project. Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you. Is there anyone else? Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else in the first?
Mr. Chair, can I ask what Mr. Williams' address is?
Mr. Williams, what's your address?
Hold on.
It's okay if you don't.
I think he said he lived on the block. I know. Okay. Okay. All right. Is there anyone else in
I think he said he lived on the block.
I know.
All right.
Is there anyone else?
the virtual audience? Yes. Bevan Journey with her hand raised. I have allowed him to speak.
Okay. I could just state your name as spelled, please, for the court stenographer.
Hi. Yes. My name is Bevan Journey, and it's B-E-V-I-N-J-O-U-R-N-E-Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do. Do you live on the, do you live, are you a neighbor? I do. And I live at 1817 for Miss
Nichols. Okay. Um, so I moved in about, uh, four years ago, um, with, I live here with my nine
month old daughter and I just want to second what Mr. Williams was saying. Um, to me, this block is
very family oriented. It is my intention to raise my daughter here. Um, I really like the tradition
of multi-generation families on this home.
And that's my intention to stay here and do the same thing.
The block is very family oriented
and I would hope that any change in development
would support that.
And then I also just wanted to push back again
against that idea of not increasing traffic.
And I just wanna point out that another neighbor
who I actually think is on this call
started a petition to switch the block
to permit parking years ago
because we were already facing issues with traffic on this block.
So we have a long history before this property was sold
and development was changing of being concerned about parking.
And as far as I know, that change was granted by the city.
They're going to allow us to switch to permit parking
because the city did recognize that there's already problems
with parking availability on the street.
I think we're just waiting for the signage on that.
And then the other thing I just want to say is that I also work at the neighborhood catchment school around the block. And we definitely, you know, the enrollment there is low. I think we would be looking for families to come in. I know I own a single family house.
the people on the other side next to me um it's a young couple they bought a home so i do think
that there is interest from families to buy full homes um i i don't think that there would only be
interest in multi-family homes i think that people are interested in uh uh you know a one family home
so thank you i just i oppose this yeah okay sure thank you for taking the time to calls
Thank you. Jason, how many more hands do we have? Just two. The first is Beverly Wilson Stone. I've allowed them to speak. Okay. Good morning.
Morning. Hi, I think I've already sworn you in. Could you just please state your name for the record?
Beverly Wilson Stone. All right. And are you a neighbor? Yes. 1831.
Okay, proceed.
Yes, I just wanted to reiterate on what my fellow family neighbors were saying.
We have one side parking, that's first of all, that's evident.
You know, there's not much parking space available for us.
Older residents and our regular new residents that's already on the block to own homes.
we already have
two apartment buildings on this block
we're fighting
always for parking spaces that are
disabled
the elderly neighbors who still drive
it's going to be
a real inconvenience
like we said at the prior
meeting on June 22nd
we had a little discrepancy there
we had a little
a little rough communication.
I'm going to say it like that. But, you know,
I'm just hoping that, you know, we stay family oriented and the block will stay
where as far as families are in these homes that, you know,
getting the industrialized, we would like
to stay family oriented on this block.
All right. Thank you for taking the time to call us, and we appreciate your testimony.
And I am against the building of it.
I think I understand that. Jason, next hand.
Bryant Wilson. Nothing to speak.
I'm Bryant Watson.
Watson.
Could you state your name, please?
Mr. Chair, I believe this is Ms. Nichols' client.
I know, I know.
Yes, I was going to recall him, Chair.
uh chair if all right what why don't we do that now okay mr watson is there anything you'd like
All right, why don't we do that now?
to say in response to the comments that you just heard from the members who've uh testified yes
can you hear me yes yes um the last meeting there was never a issue with parking about saying we
wouldn't try to uh fix the parking the issue with parking is not with not not concerned my concern
with me because there's only one side of parking on the street so if i have a fan one family or
two family that's that that's that's not nothing that i can fix if i put one family in there and
it's a five-bedroom house there's going to be two people or three people with cars regardless
the whole time like my family lit that's my family's house just interrupt you 1821 was your
family's house yes it's my family's house so the the parking was always an issue right there
there was always an issue in that neighborhood if there's only parking on one side of the street
so that's not that it's not like i said like i i didn't try to fix that concern is that there's
no way to fix that there's no parking on the street so most people that rent most young people
uh catch ubers anyway so that wouldn't have been an issue with me and and my property so there was
never like so when when they said it was testy and it was getting loud in the last meeting that
wasn't because of us because it was because of the uh someone talking loud it was it was never
me talking loud I was always respectful I was actually getting high on that on the last meeting
I never talked back to anyone I didn't raise my voice to anyone that was all the neighbors
getting tested with me and and and Miss Nichols I never said anything loud that was the neighbors
getting loud so we never had I never had an issue about parking I never said anything about that
is that it's parking it's only parking on one side of the street and that's most of the streets
in the neighborhood, unless you're on a big
street, whereas there's two sides of parking.
But on that street, there's only one side of parking.
And Mr. Watson, how long did your
family own that house?
They owned that house since the 50s.
So when Mr.
William?
Mr. Calvin, yes, when he says he'd been there
and his family, he just moved in that house
in the 90s. Like, my family remember
when he moved there. So for him to say that and say
it's family oriented, my family been there
longer.
My family owned that house in the 50s.
Did you obtain these signatures on the petition of support?
Yes, yes. And they all have addresses. Yes.
Now, there's addresses here on Montgomery Avenue.
Yes, right behind there. Exactly. I'm from that neighborhood. I'm 55. I've been around
the whole 55 years. I'm from there. So when they say I'm not from there and I'm coming
from somewhere else and family oriented that doesn't that doesn't relate to me i'm from there